


Water

by Panic_boy_21



Category: Palaye Royale (Band)
Genre: M/M, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-11-08 03:46:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17973851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Panic_boy_21/pseuds/Panic_boy_21
Summary: "You turned my life upside-down, I hope you know that.""Please. From what you told me, it was hectic before I showed up.""Yeah, it was. You helped fix it."





	Water

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aintgotenoughcoffee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aintgotenoughcoffee/gifts).



"Are you sure about this?" Emerson asked.

"No. But would you rather stay and risk his life?" Sebastian snapped back.

Emerson's peach fins twitched at that. "I'm not saying we shouldn't, but where would we go?"

"Anywhere but here."

They were currently hiding behind a rock, plotting how to get away from the pod of merpeople that they lived with. Sure it was nice, being around full grown, stronger merpeople that took care of them, but their brother was the runt of the pod.

It's common knowledge that the runt is killed so they don't drag the whole pod down. Joys of being born into a violent one.

"Go wake him up, we're leaving now before anyone sees us."

Emerson sighed, "Fine."

He swam over to where the pod had stopped for the night, swiftly yet carefully making his way to where his older brother was sleeping. Not very easy in a cave where everyone's in one area.

He stopped right behind the rock Rem had claimed as his, pressed against the wall.

"Rem. Remington!" He whisper-shouted, reaching up with to shake the older boy's shoulder.

"Mmmm..." Rem muttered, trailing off in his sleep.

"Rem!" Em repeated, poking Remington right on the nose.

"Mmm, wha..?"

"Shhhh!"

"Emmy? What do you want?"

"Be quiet and follow me."

"Why? It's the middle of the night."

"Just do it!" Emerson whisper-screamed, his voice laced with urgency.

"Alright, fine."

Rem rolled off his rock and followed Em. The rounded a corner and Remington recognized the long hair and silver scales of his older brother in the shadows.

Seb turned around to face them, slightly panicked at first before realizing it was just them.

"Finally, we need to hurry. We've only got a little time."

"To do what, exactly?" Rem inquired, still clueless as to what was happening.

"We're getting you out of here." Em revealed.

"What? No!"

"You know what will happen to you if you stay here." Emerson replied.

"Yeah, and the same thing will happen to all of us if we're caught!" Rem shot back.

"Then we either live together or die together. Either way, I'm not losing my best friend."

"That's what will happen if they catch us!"

"Remington!" Sebastian exclaimed, grabbing his trembling shoulders to calm him down. "I will not, I repeat, _will_ _**not**_ , let that happen. Understand?"

Remington looked close to crying. Sebastian pulled him to his chest, wrapping his arms around the younger boy. Rem hugged Seb tightly and wrapped his red tail around him.

"I'm scared. I don't want to die." He wimpered into Seb's chest.

"You won't," Sebastian reassured him, "I promise."

Seb held out one arm to Emerson, who, despite not being the physical contact type, cuddled into his brothers.

That very moment, the silver-tailed boy promised himself that nothing bad would ever happen to his family. Not under his watch.

After a few minutes, he broke the silence. "You okay?"

Emerson looked up and nodded.

"Yeah."

They pulled away from each other, Rem still sniffling.

"You ready to go?"

Rem nodded, rubbing his eyes.

Seb peered out from behind the rock, listening for anything.

"I think we're safe." He informed us. "We can't go directly out the entrance, but I inspected a little tunnel when we got here that leads to the ridge we passed earlier."

"How long have you been planning this?"

"Since the adults decided what to do with you."

"Guys," Emerson warned from where he was watching the tunnels, "shouldn't we go before the patrol switch?"

"Yeah. Come on." Sebastian started swiming down the tunnel, staying low and close to the wall.

His brothers followed suit, almost touching each other with how close they were.

Soon they stopped and Sebastian put his back against one of the rocks. He pounded his tail against the water as hard as he could, rolling the stone back, only stopping at times when it made noise. Eventually, he had moved it enough to show a hole in the base of the wall. He used his tail to prop it up with another rock that could be pushed out of the way from inside to cover the crevice again.

"Okay, it's pretty long, but it doesn't branch off, so just follow until the end."

"You say that like you're not coming with us." Emerson commented, looking in the tunnel.

"I'll go in behind you to close it."

Rem looked up at him with a questioning look, before his face contorted into one of fear.

"What?"

"The scales are blue."

Sebastian reached up to touch the tiny, usually silver scales by his eyes.

"Hey! What are you doing!"

They quickly turned to see a few mermen glareing at them. Sebastian moved in front of the smaller boys, blocking them from view.

"Go. Now!" He yelled at them.

"Rem, come on!" Emerson said to his brother, who was frozen in place. He grabbed the older boys hand and pulled him towards the tunnel.

"HEY! STOP!" The grown men quickly swam at them, one throwing their spear, luckily missing the three of them.

"Sebastian, come on!" Emerson yelled from the tunnel.

Seb darted into the tunnel, the others throwing their spears. Right as he got inside, he turned and placed his hands on the walls on either side. He slamed his tail into the small rock holding up the boulder as hard as he could. He pulled his tail in right as the giant stone slamed into the ground blocking the older men from following them.

"Can't they just move it, too?"

"I moved some of the rocks and silt from the bottom. That rock just sunk into the mud. It's not going anywhere." Seb reassured his youngest brother. "Let's go."

They swam in silence all the way through.

~✴~✳~❇~✳~✴~

"Sebastian! We have to stop." Emerson yelled after his brother.

They had left the pod two months ago, and they were trying to find a safe spot to rest. They hadn't had a break in a while, so Seb was trying to find a safe spot to settle down for the night.

"We can't. It's not safe here. We're too close to the coast."

"We don't have a choice. You haven't healed yet. And Rem can't keep going like this. It's getting worse, he needs to rest."

Sebastian turned around and saw that the middle child was asleep and being carried by the youngest.

Runts usually had extremely weak immune systems, and Remington was no exception to this.

Remington's hair changes from the natural dark color to white when he's ill, kind of like how Sebastian has tiny scales around his eyes that change from the natural silver of his tail to the light blue of his fins when danger is near. You can tell how bad it is by how much changed and how bright it is. And his long-ish hair had turned stark white.

Sebastian swam over to him and put a hand to his forehead, feeling the unnatural level of heat coming from him. It had only risen since he had last checked it.

"Shit." He sighed removing his hand. "Fine. Well stay here. Only until he's better."

Emerson let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Thank you. I saw a cave a while back. We could stop there."

Sebastian looked down at his tail, which had a cloth they found tied around it, bloody where a spear had hit him in their escape.

"If you remember where it is, we can stay there." He consented.

"Yeah. Follow me."

"Hold on. Let me take him. You've probably been holding him for a while."

Emerson gently transferred Rem to his brothers outstretched arms. Sebastian pulled him close to his chest in the most protective way possible.

Emerson started off in the direction they came from, making sure to keep checking on his brothers eyes incase something went wrong.

It was almost dark by the time they found Emerson's cave. It was a pretty good size, and was in the cliffs that made up the shore.

"Do I have your approval?" Emerson sassed.

"Yeah, yeah. The threat of humans is still too high, but it will do until he Rem can travel again." He said, laying the boy on a moss bed near the back, trying not to wake him.

"Get some sleep. I'll keep watch."

"No, you need to rest as well. We'll all get some sleep."

"But-" Seb started.

"No." Em ordered. "We'll be fine. You need to take care of yourself, too."

Sebastian sighed and swam over to the back with Emerson, both lying down near Remington.

"Seb?" Emerson wispered.

"Hmm?"

"I love you."

"I love you, too." Sebastian replied as they both drifted off to sleep.


End file.
